THE GRAND FLEET.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1916, Page 7

THE GRAND FLEET.

ITS WONDERFUL EFFICIENCY.

IMPRESSIONS OF VISITORS,

The Australian statesman referral to by an irreverent London journal as "the irrepressible Mr. Hughes" may be irrepressible, but he is also impressionable, and his visit to the Grand Fleet has filled him with a new enthusiasm. Every journalist who has been given the privilege of visiting the fleet has eome away with the same story of visible power and wonderful efficiency, and most of them, like Mr. Hughes, are impressed with the spirit of the men even more than by the efficiency of the machine. There "was a Russian visit to the fleet a few weeks ago, when Sir John Jellicoe pleased 'his guests immensely by observing that it might be difficult for the Grand Fleet to visit the Baltic, but it would not be impossible. French journalists have been similarly impressed, and American writers have exhausted their'stocks of superlatives on the ships and men.

Here is a note by Mr. K. Choukovsky, one of the Russian journalists: "It is idle to say my friends and I were impressed by this sight of British sea power. The Grand Fleet is the grandest spectacle I ever saw in my life. It looked more than anything else like a great city of gracious yet tremendous shapes and towers ; a strange city of streets and roads and lanes, and great hotels that moved miraculously, as if with wings. The whole sea seemed to be alive with them, with these mobile steel Monsters of war. When we sighted the flagship, the Iron Duke, our salute to the Admiral was wirelessed, and in less than two minutes back came the Admiral's wirelessed welcome. In Russia Sir John Jellicoe is a national hero, almost a national idol. Our children cherish his photograph, and know his features by heart. Yet when, we were at last confronted by the man who directs the immense destiny of the British forces on the seas, I could hardly believe my eyes. He seemed much too simple and modest and genial a personality to be at the helm of such a terrible and tremendous machine as the British Navy." Mr. Choukovsky writes, of course, of the ships, the guns, the torpedoes and the rest of the engines of destruction. "But best of all," he says, "I liked,the British sailors. I talked to many of them and they talked to me, and showed me their quarters, and their cheerful mottoes and notices on the wall, and the ingenious toys they had made out of battle-splinters. My body still aches from the heartiness of their many friendly slaps on the shoulder. They are splendid, handsome fellows, full of optimism, courage and high spirits, doir|g their work as quickly, cheerfully and enthusiastically as if they were playing a game—as indeed they are! I met one sailor who had jumped overboard in the coldest weather and risked his life to stive a drowning dog. And there was a little midshipman i talked to whose relatives lived only four hours' journey away, but who lmd not been able to see them for eight months, so arduous were his duties; but he was quite cheerful, taking everything in good part, and recognising that it was all part of the game he and his friends had set themselves to play. When we return to Russia we shall have many great and wonderful things to relate to our own people, but nothing can surpass the magnitude, the vigilance, the power and the immensity of the British battle fleet, as we have seen it with our own eyes, aud our admiration is mixed with gratitude, for this 'sure shield' of Britain is 110 less the unceasing shield and safeguard of Russia."

Take again this note from a long and very interesting despatch sent to the Chicago Daily Xews by Mr. E. P. Bell, its correspondent: "One finds the fact coming forcibly home to one on a great warship as happens also, I imagine, when one studies a great army—that there are two overmastering- factors in modern war—the man and the machine. If the man is helpless—moving to pathos —without the machine, the machine is yet nioro helpless without the man. Precaiious the position of that nation, particularly that wealthy nation, which lacks these indispensables of safety! Not pacificist ideals, not law, nor justice, nor humanity; not righteousness; 110 abstract excellence whatever will ensure deliverance from powerful enemies in time of war, 'Deliverance can be had only by the man and the machine. In her 'Navy—for this sample of her fleet. I believe, is like all the rest—Britain has this union of the marvel of mechanics and the magic of human skill. The man must be trained, the machine up to date The man is needed in millions, the machine ,in numbers almost as great. In effective warships boilers and engines must be right, guns right, the human clement right. Boilers and engines "■ivo the speed that is vital. Guns give "the range and throw the weight of nietal that are vital. Men furnish the alltranscending, all-controlling energy, coolness, judgment, discipline and deathdespising nerve that are vital."